Reneging for banks that recruit late
Hypothetical renege situation: Since PJT starts late and CVP even later would they be okay with SA reneging for them? What about GS? JPM is one of the "late" banks and I heard they are okay with reneging. I know PJT/CVP haven't started yet but has anyone been in this situation? Or anyone with experience accelerating them?
FWIW: Don't have an offer yet but have 1 first round and 2 SD coming up (for other banks) also have a call scheduled with alumni at PJT/CVP
It is difficult to see which firm is fine with reneging since none of it is in writing. So, I would tread carefully.
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How would they find out that you reneged if you're at a target? Are they just going to ask alumni at all banks if you were given an offer?
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This is a stupid topic every time it comes up with some people touting that reneging will ruin your life and others saying it is completely risk free, so here is my more nuanced take:
was in a similar spot to your hypothetical situation last year when recruiting (had a 'good' offer and was in the pipeline at a top EB/BB) and actually spoke to a friend at the career center of my school (target) to get his take.
He said as a career advisor, he obviously had to say reneging is bad, but he said speaking as an unbiased friend, there are pros/cons:
my target takes reneging very seriously. If I reneged, I would lose the ability to participate in future OCR. Theoretically if I had reneged to a place like PJT, then didn't get a return offer, I would be absolutely fucked because I wouldn't be able to use any resources for FT recruiting. I would also lose access to the alumni networking portal, which is a pretty important resource. He said that if I reneged, there was a 95% chance that HR from the bank would contact the school recruiting center and this would happen.
There are many stories of reneging being uneventful (someone renegs, other bank is pissed but doesn't do anything, life goes on and student ends up at better bank). There are some horror stories of reneging where someone from the reneged on bank figures out where the kid is going and ruins their life, but these are pretty unusual. Chances are, things will work out ok. But there is still a chance everything gets ruined.
His advice was that reneging from Greenhill to Evercore or Barclays to GS is absolutely asinine. The risk/reward is just completely unjustifiable, as a good analyst at Greenhill will have 99% (if not 100%) of the opportunities available to someone at Evercore. The slight chance that something bad happens and both offers disappear is simply too risky for a very slight upgrade. There's always FT recruiting, lateraling after first year, or getting an MBA and re-recruiting. Reneging and somehow ending up with no offer can be a career-ruining risk, and an offer from a 'lower' EB/BB is still a phenomenal opportunity. Because this was my situation, I ended up not reneging. However, he said that if it were a more extreme upgrade (ie Nomura to PJT) then reneging could be a worthwhile decision.
Conclusion- it's all about your risk tolerance. A slight upgrade is probably not worth reneging, a big upgrade could be worth it. Chances are you'll be fine reneging, but there's some chance things still blow up.
Final note- don't trest people on here that say 'x bank is fine with reneging'. Sure, some analyst on some group might be fine with it, but that doesn't mean some MD or HR person is also fine with it. They're the ones who will pull your offer when they get a call from an angry MD at the other bank. (JP Morgan might be the exception to this because they don't explicitly disavow it on their website, but when in doubt trust HR- not some random account on WSO)
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Exactly. Going from Barclays/CS/Citi (or even DB/UBS) to GS/MS/JPM is doable for FT, or as a first year lateral. Having no SA because you reneged and both offers were pulled is going to make FT recruiting impossible and you'd be lucky to land a big 4 accounting job. If you play with fire, just make sure you know the risks and are prepared to be burned.
Ultimately this will come down to a personal, case-by-case decision but when you're in college its difficult to grasp just how small the industry actually is - every analyst knows other analysts at other banks (not to mention 10 more kids from their college) and given the chances of breaking in are so low, the same candidates recruit across the same banks. We absolutely talk.
If the offer in question is from a remotely reputable bank, I personally do not think the risk justifies the deed. Very easy way to ruin your reputation across the Street and in this industry, reputation is everything. Also definitely is a bad look on your alma mater, if that matters at all to you.
Hey all, thanks for the great insights. I have another hypothetical: what about reneging for a decently known MM in, for example, the Boston area to a mid-tier BB (Barclays/Citi/CS) in NY? My school is not necessarily a target for many banks, but the alumni network, particularly in finance, is pretty tight. Do you think the risk is worth it?
OP of this comment here. I forgot to add that the hypothetical MM bank does have an NYC office that I could ask to be relocated, barring my performance.
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